Editorial: With California fracking, we'll be watching

Can Californians be both green and consume gasoline? Of course. In fact, they have no choice. We have to live in the real world even as we work to make it sustainable.

That includes responsibly -- and safely -- extracting petroleum in California.

Sometimes, as in the case of the Monterey shale formation, a Central Valley deposit that may hold 15.4 billion barrels of oil, that extraction is going to include the technology of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, in which a combination of water and chemicals is injected deep into the ground to unlock oil and natural gas.

It's a tremendously large reserve. The Monterey field of 1,750 square miles may hold two-thirds of the nation's shale oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Taking oil through fracking will be part of the new boom that is putting the country well on its way toward energy independence for the first time in the modern era. Fracking technology is what has revived the formerly moribund West Texas oil industry. It's what is driving the crazy oil-driven economic boom in North Dakota. There's even a chance that the United States could become a net oil exporter in coming years after generations of relying in great part on expensive oil imports. And the shale deposit will undoubtedly boost the state's economy.

But fracking does come with serious dangers, especially in California. And they must be fully explored - and regulations developed to keep Californians safe and protect the natural resources.

The most worrisome is that the state's seismic activity makes injecting liquid near fault zones a different proposition than in the East and Midwest. There's credible evidence that fracking-related activities can trigger earthquakes.

The chemicals, sometimes carcinogens, that are injected into the ground bring problems of their own. Where there would ordinarily be strict federal environmental regulations, drillers have carved out legal secrecy because they say they need to keep the chemical mix quiet for "proprietary" reasons because rival oil companies could copy their formula. It's a bogus claim.

Fracking, on a small scale, has long been used in California oil fields. With the coming exploration of the Monterey shale must come fracking regulations that take into account California's unique environment.

Nor should the bonanza of the shale deposit here derail California's commitment to wind, solar and other alternative energy sources.

Research and development funding should continue at state universities and nonprofit organization with the goal of creating a state that someday will be entirely free of greenhouse-gas emissions. But we're not there yet. Even if we were, it would still make sense to bolster California's economy by selling its oil. That's why environmentalist Gov. Jerry Brown, after a year of studying fracking, came out last week in support of the technology.

The governor says his administration has competent personnel to oversee fracking. Meanwhile, legislators are beginning to craft bills to outline regulation, such as one by state Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, that would require drillers to apply for a separate permit before fracking a well and require the state to set up and operate a database on fracking wells apart from the one the industry has already established.

The oil industry says it doesn't want or need any new regulation at all - and was the partial funder of last week's USC study that says the Monterey drilling would boost state economic activity by as much as 14.3 percent, add as much as $24.6 billion in state and local tax revenue and as many as 2.8 million jobs by 2020.

They're wrong. Fracking does need regulation.

At just a bare minimum, chemicals used in the process must be disclosed to state regulators. As well, there must be strong rules in place for storing and handling fracking fluids, with strong penalties for non-compliance. Aquifers near drilling areas must be identified and studied, and oil companies held responsible for cleanup if there is any contamination. Research needs to continue on how fracking affects earthquake faults.

As long as it is done safely, California can and should tap this natural resource.